What San Jose, CA looked like at the Turn of the 20th Century

Woman crossing the street as Car #8 travels eastbound on Santa Clara Street at First Street. Wooden streetcars of this type were abandoned by San Jose railroads during the 1920s after the introduction of the Birneys.

On reverse: The Post Office, from St. James Park, San Jose, Cal. San Jose is a flourishing city of about 40,000 with unusually fine public buildings for a city of its size.

Fallon House in centre of picture taken from the roof of the courthouse building, looking west There are at least 6 adobe building in view.

Opened in 1889, hotel was located on 1st street near Empire. Three-story building, built of redwood, including three towers.

Union Pacific and Royal Shaving Parlor are shown on right, with horse-drawn carriages and early automobiles on the street.

Postcard of the Garden City Sanitarium showing the driveway leading to the facility with sanitarium buildings on the right. Individuals are standing at the front of the closest building as well as occupying the balcony.

A horse drawn float, elaborately decorated with flowers, passes by crowds during the Rose Carnival Parade. Spectators can be seen standing on balconies and at second-story windows to watch the parade. The Rose Carnival was part of the festivities surrounding President McKinley's visit.

In the foreground is a curved dirt path leading to the main entrance. To the right is part of the school landscaping. This brick building was built in 1881 to replace an earlier building destroyed by fire. The building seen here was badly damaged in the 1906 earthquake and subsequently demolished.

San Jose High School was opened in 1908 to replace an earlier structure destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. The central building flanked by bell towers housed administrative offices and an auditorium. Separate wings on either side housed classrooms. The high school was demolished in the 1950s to make room for expansion of San Jose State College.

Children looking into the water of a fountain. A woman with two children in the background is also looking into the water. Palm trees and benches in the background.

Market & San Fernando Streets with electric light tower in the distance. St. Joseph's Church on the right. Scaffolding is still on the post office at the far right. This image was featured on a series of collectible cards produced by The Image Group in 1992, with the following caption: Dominating the intersection of Market and Santa Clara streets is the famous Electric Light Tower, some 237 feet tall.

Horse-drawn carriage parked in front of the Peacock Stables. Jacobi B. Poulsen became proprietor of the Peacock Livery Stable at 59 North San Pedro Street from around 1908 to 1913. In 1913 he sold all of his stock at public auction after the automobile industry started making inroads. He then engaged in hay, grain, and fuel business with partner and brother-in-law Hans A. Hansen, at the corner of Julian and San Pedro Streets.

The Henry Cogswell statue as it stood in the San Jose City Hall Plaza. Both the statehouse replica and city hall are visible behind the statue.

There was severe damage and 101 patients and 11 staff members were killed.

The Sainte Claire Club was an exclusive men's club founded in San Jose in 1888. The Mission Style Revial Clubhouse was built at the corner of North Second and Saint James in 1893.

Brigadier General Henry Morris Naglee purchased land in San Jose in 1858. He planted orchards and a vineyard and started a winery. His country house still stands at Fourteenth Street and San Fernando Street.

The church was dedicated in 1877 on the spot where four previous Catholic churches had stood since 1803. In 1990 St. Joseph's became the Cathedral for the Diocese of San Jose, and in 1997 received Basilica status from the Vatican.

Photograph of a group of women from the Native Daughters of the Golden West participating in the 1909 Admissions Day parade in San Jose. A few women are on horseback but most are riding in carriages. They are stopped on South Market Street near the intersection of Post. The woman sitting in the first carriage peering over the shoulder of the man with the cigar is Tillie Brohaska, member of the musical Brohaska family and a well-known local pianist.

The Sainte Claire Club was an exclusive men's club founded in San Jose in 1888. The Mission Style Revial clubhouse was built at the corner of North Second Street and Saint James Street in 1893. Both the building and the Club still survive.

Portrait of two older men and one woman standing outside the front of a stone building in Scotland. The first two floors of the building are visible; it's unclear how many floors there are. Another man, possibly a gardener, is working in the front garden. This building is part of a row of buildings, either single family attached homes, or flats, which would have had larger gardens in the back, sometimes shared between residents.

View looking across the quadrangle lawn toward the main entrance to San Jose State Normal School. The main entrance gate has three arches and faces Fourth Street. On the right is one of the classroom wings connected to a colonnaded arcade. The structure was built of reinforced concrete to replace one destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. It opened in September 1910.

There are two men standing on a far tower and people are walking on the streets in front. A billboard is advertising the Pacific Fleet.

A group of women from the Native Daughters of the Golden West participating in the 1907 Admissions Day parade in San Jose. A few women are on horseback but most are riding in carriages. They are stopped on South Market Street near the intersection of Post Street. The woman sitting in the first carriage peering over the shoulder of the man with the cigar is Tillie Brohaska, member of the musical Brohaska family and a well known local pianist.

An adult and three children stand in front of the left side of Longfellow Grammar School. The school is surrounded by a dirt field. Longfellow Grammar School was constructed to replace an older building destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. It stood at 275 Terraine Street near North San Pedro and West Julian Streets. It was closed in the early 1970s as an earthquake hazard and its students were transferred to Hester Elementary School.

The library was located at the southeast corner of San Fernando and Fourth streets. The cornerstone was laid February 17, 1902 and the new building opened June 6, 1903. The library was designed in the Classical Revival style, by architect William Binder, who also designed the Hollister Carnegie. The builder was F.A. Curtis. By 1908 the Carnegie building was already overcrowded and in 1936 it was sold to San Jose/Main State College. The old Carnegie building served the college as Student Union until it was torn down in 1960 to make room for a new wing on the college library.

First Street looking south from the intersection of Post Street is crowded with wagons and carriages. Pedestrians walk the sidewalks while a streetcar runs on tracks down the middle of the street. The tall building on the right is the Garden City Bank building which opened in 1908.

The staff and performers of Unique Theatre photographed in front of the building at 20 East Santa Clara Street. Two sign boards advertise the moving pictures and Vaudeville performances. Opened by Sid Grauman in 1903, the Unique Theatre was irreparably damaged in the 1906 earthquake.

The Hotel Saint James, which stood at 123 North First Street, opposite Saint James Park. An American flag flies atop the building. The hotel is flanked by the Saint James Livery and Feed Stables and the Santa Clara County Courthouse. The courthouse is still in use.

The railroad car is at center and partially inside a small tunnel cut into a mountain behind it. A man in a railroad uniform is standing near the car at center. The tracks on which the car rides split in the foreground, with one track extending to the left and the other to the center. A large wooden water tank can be seen on the hill in the background, and a wooden fence runs above the tunnel. Several trees and bushes can be seen around the tunnel.

Roses climb to the second story of a Victorian style house. The unpaved driveway is lined with trees and bushes and leads to a barn behind the house. Steps used for dismounting from a carriage stand at the path leading to the house's front porch. A sign hangs at the entrance to the house but the words are obscured by a rose bush.

The circular park has a y-shaped walkway where in the center stands a statue. The landscape, consisting flower plants and trees, is beautifully designed. Trees line the circular perimeter of the park. One prominent building, across the street from the park, features castle-like architecture. Behind it is another unique building that features a Moorish or Spanish-like architecture. In the distance is the San Jose's Electric Light Tower.

A paved road emerges from the left side in the foreground and bends towards the background on the right. Trees line both sides of the road with several lightly-colored structures standing on the left side behind a thin sidewalk at center. On the far left a palm tree stands in center of a circle of flowers planted in a small plot of grass on the side of the road.

The tall hotel stands on the right with several balconies under the many windows. Dark, glass doors can be seen in the hotel at street level and two wooden wagons with horses stand next to the park across the street. Palm trees line the sidewalk in front of the grass park where a statue depicting a man pointing towards the ground stands on a top of a wide, stone pedestal with a second, dark figure on the back side of the pedestal.

The large building appears to be a church with several towers, including one at center, with arched windows and a cross displayed on top. A large dome-like roof can be seen in the back with another cross presented on top. Large, double-doorways can be seen on the left beyond thick columns underneath printed words on the roof above. Palm trees stand on either side of the entrance behind the short, black fence that surrounds the yard.

A large tree stands at center splitting a paved pathway which is lined with flowers and grass. One section extends to the left where a staircase leads to the plant-covered porch and entrance of the large house. The pathway also leads straight with another staircase at center on the path's left and the window to a rounded sitting room further down.

The three-story, mission-style building is at center and is facing to the right. A second-story balcony serves as a cover for the front porch. The walls are covered with spackle and the roof is made of terracotta tiles. Another unidentified house can be seen in the foreground at right. It is a two-story clapboard house with a flat roof.

The tall, lightly-colored hotel stands at center in the back with a many windows and a tower that presents the American flag on a pole at top. Another rounded tower can be seen on the right while a shady porch sits on the first level on the left. A grassy yard occupies the foreground with a small patio as well as several circular gardens and a variety of trees.

The large, brick building stands three stories tall at center with a long staircase leading to the columns of the entrance on the left. A road emerging from the foreground at center is split to either side of a small, triangular garden in part of the grassy yard of the college.

The lightly-colored building stands five stories tall with a clock tower at the corner of the two intersecting streets at center. Balconies protrude from underneath several of the many windows and bare flag poles extend from underneath the clocks on either side of the clock tower.

The church is lightly shaded with a darkly covered roof and trim and a short staircase that leads to the castle-like entrance at center. Stained glass windows can be seen in a row in the wall on the right while a giant tower presents a cross further down the road on the right. Several people stand on the steps leading from the tower on the right to the sidewalk that runs along the far side of the street in front of the church.

The large church stands at center with most of the front walls covered in trees and long plants that climb the tall walls. A shingled, slanting roof can be seen on the left presenting a cross and another can be seen on the right with arched windows below it. A small staircase stands between them and a steeple extends from the trees above.

A paved driveway leads through the yard from the foreground on the left to the large hotel at center. Trees stand along the edge of the grassy yard that surrounds the driveway while at the end of the driveway staircases lead to a shaded porch on the first floor of the hotel.

Plants nearly cover the walls of the building on the right while the left side is relatively uncovered with brick trim around the windows and doors. Two palm trees stand in the small yard on the right side with two massive bushes on either side of them. Short, lightly-colored posts stand on the sidewalk outside the entrance of the building on the far left and another building stands further down the street.

The library was located on the first floor. The building is approximately three-stories tall, four-stories if tower is included. An American flag is situated at the top of the bell tower.

The street is busy with pedestrian and vehicle traffic. In the distance stands a tall structure, whose shape resembles the Eiffel tower.

The building is about five-stories tall and features Greek or Romanesque architecture. Wide steps lead up to the large portico entrance supported by six columns. "justitiæ dedicata" is embossed on the wall directly below the large pediment above the portico. To the right of the court house is the Hall of Records.

A group poses at the entrance of the Swiss Hotel at North Market Street. The Swiss Hotel was established in 1855.

A San Jose Railroad streetcar heading south on Second street prepares to cross Santa Clara street; this narrow gauge electric line ran from Second and St. John to Seventh and Keyes. The street is busy with pedestrians, bicyclists, and horse-drawn carriages

Looking south on Market Street from St. John, c. 1905. On the left is the J. S. Williams clothing store next to the Palm Restaurant and the New York Exchange Hotel. City Hall (built in 1887) is in the center of the Plaza in the background. The Electric Light Tower, 237 feet high, spanned Market and Santa Clara Streets from 1881 to 1915

Located on the southwest corner of First and San Fernando, this 1905 steel-framed building is considered the first skyscraper in San José, and the site of its first radio station, KQW. It later became the Silicon Valley Financial Center.

Mounted policemen on Market Street near St. Joseph's Church. From left to right: John Humburg, Chief T. W. Carroll, D. W. Campbell. The electric light tower and a southbound Peninsular Railway street car are visible in the background.

Post Office on the Plaza soon after the 1906 eathquake. This building later housed the public library, and, since 1975, the San José Museum of Art.

Post Street immediately after the 1906 earthquake. Downtown San José suffered major destruction in this quake.